PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Army contracts companies to build and operate fledgling Project Lynchpin, an artificial intelligence pipeline intended to power the military’s intelligence gathering and electronic warfare systems. Probability is high.
The first contract for the digital conduit is expected to close in March or April 2024, according to Col. Chris Anderson, project manager for the Army Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, and Sensors Program Office (PEO IEW&S). More should follow.
“We expect to end up with a series of deals on various aspects of the pipeline,” Anderson told C4ISRNET on the sidelines of the Defense Industry Conference Technical Exchange Meeting X in Philadelphia last week. . “It takes a whole village to build a team with people in government, industry, academia and everyone else to make this happen.”
The Department of Defense has long recognized the value of AI on and off the battlefield, and has since invested billions in its advancement and deployment. The technology helps vehicles navigate, predicts when maintenance is needed, helps identify and classify targets, and assists analysts in sifting through mountains of information.
Through Project Lynchpin, the Army will provide AI capabilities across the closely related Intel, cyber, and electronic warfare worlds, according to the documents, while also providing field-relevant capabilities such as consuming and ingesting real-world data and required training plans. We will also deal with hangups.
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“There is a data labeling component, and the actual model training is done,” says Anderson. “Then there’s validation and validation on the backend, and then it’s just running the infrastructure.
The PEO IEW&S portfolio includes a Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) intended to centralize and automate data collection, analysis and distribution. Advanced Detection and Exploitation Systems (HADES) are intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance jets equipped with advanced sensors. The other is Terrestrial Layer Systems (TLS) designed to provide cyberwarfare and electronic warfare support to soldiers.
Each plays a specific role on the futuristic battlefield. And each is tied to a Project Lynchpin.
“For all the sensor-related programs within PEO, this is the machine learning pipeline,” says Anderson. “We want to bring science fair experiments into a record program.”
The Project Linchpin industry day is scheduled for August or September. PEO IEW&S conducted market research at a previous technology exchange in Nashville.
Colin Demarest is a reporter for C4ISRNET covering military networks, cyber and IT. Colin previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Agency, the Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development, for a daily South Carolina newspaper. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.
